Delta learned that summer is a great time to prepare for winter and how to de-ice planes so they can fly safely in freezing temperatures.
Each summer, Delta takes about 400 employees to Minneapolis for a three-day summer de-icing “boot camp.” They receive computer-based training, watch demonstrations from instructors and then practice spraying the aircraft – using water instead of the chemicals in de-icing fluids.
Jeannine Ashworth, the Atlanta-based airline’s vice president of airport operations, said the boot camp rotates in groups of about 10 people to return to home base and train 6,000 colleagues by October .
The de-icing process goes like this: A large truck with a tank of de-icing mixture is parked next to the aircraft, and an operator sprays a hot liquid in a bucket on top of a long boom that melts the ice but won’t because of the chemicals. Refreeze it to contain mostly propylene glycol.
De-icing an aircraft can take anywhere from a few minutes to 40 minutes or more, depending on the condition and size of the aircraft.
Planes need to be de-iced because if left untreated, ice can form on the fuselage and wings, interfering with the airflow that keeps the plane aloft. Even slight buildup can affect performance. In the worst-case scenario, ice can cause a plane to enter an aerodynamic stall and fall out of the sky.
Dustin Foreman, an instructor who usually works at the Atlanta airport, said de-icing “is the last line of defense for aircraft safety during winter flying.” “If we don’t clean them up, the planes won’t fly. They won’t stay in the air. Safety first, always.”
The hardest part of training? Get newbies used to big trucks, said Michael Ruby, an instructor from Detroit who has been de-icing aircraft since 1992, when he sprayed Fokker F27 turboprops for a regional airline.
“The biggest vehicle they ever drove was a Ford Focus. The truck was 30 feet long, not to mention the boom hanging in the air. There were a lot of different switches,” Ruby said. “When you fly something that big for the first time – the first time you fly in the air – it can be scary.”
Minneapolis is the perfect place to learn about de-icing. Last winter, Delta Air Lines de-iced about 30,000 aircraft in its system, including 13,000 in Minneapolis.
However, boot camps come from all corners of the Delta network, even places known more for their beaches than snowstorms.
“I would never have imagined that Jacksonville, Pensacola or Tallahassee, Florida, would need to de-ice aircraft — they do, so we train employees there as well,” Ashworth said.
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Koenig reported from Dallas.
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